Stalin and German Communism: A Study in the Origins of the State Party - Hardcover

Fischer, Ruth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674282787 ISBN 13: 9780674282780

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1948

Synopsis

Excerpt from the Preface: There are three strong threads which run through Ruth Fischer's present volume and bind its diverse details and complicated ideological expositions firmly and closely together. The first thread is the history of the German Communist Party, 1918-1929. The second thread is the story of the internal Soviet struggle for political power during Lenin's last years and immediately after his death up to the point where Trotsky was eliminated by exile. The third thread is the connecting tie-up between the other two threads - the interrelation between German Communist policy and the internal conflicts in the Soviet Politburo and the Moscow Comintern; or, to put it more bluntly, Russian efforts to manipulate German Communist policy, not for Germany's own good, but in the interests of Russian internal factions or of Soviet foreign policy. It was this, together with Stalin's use of terror and secret police, and his ruthless elimination of those who stood in his way, which led Ruth Fischer to break with Moscow and with the pro-Soviet German Communists, including her own brother, Gerhart Eisler.

About this title

Review

"[Fischer's] intimate knowledge, together with use of all available material, makes [this] book probably the most thorough and complete work on the topic."""

"--Library Journal"

""[Stalin and German Communism] "carries conviction and firmly drives home an authoritative explanation of the most significant events of our time.... [Fischer] has unusual qualifications for telling the story... Her story is thus partly autobiography and partly history, documented from an unusual combination of personal inside information and a conscientious study of the printed "sources.""

"--""New York Times"

"This book, restrained and erudite, will contribute substantially to general knowledge of world Communist history."

-- "Saturday Review of Literature"

"[Fischer's] intimate knowledge, together with use of all available material, makes [this] book probably the most thorough and complete work on the topic."

--Library Journal

"[Stalin and German Communism] carries conviction and firmly drives home an authoritative explanation of the most significant events of our time.... [Fischer] has unusual qualifications for telling the story... Her story is thus partly autobiography and partly history, documented from an unusual combination of personal inside information and a conscientious study of the printed sources."

--New York Times

"This book, restrained and erudite, will contribute substantially to general knowledge of world Communist history."

-- Saturday Review of Literature

-[Fischer's] intimate knowledge, together with use of all available material, makes [this] book probably the most thorough and complete work on the topic.-

--Library Journal

-[Stalin and German Communism] carries conviction and firmly drives home an authoritative explanation of the most significant events of our time.... [Fischer] has unusual qualifications for telling the story... Her story is thus partly autobiography and partly history, documented from an unusual combination of personal inside information and a conscientious study of the printed sources.-

--New York Times

-This book, restrained and erudite, will contribute substantially to general knowledge of world Communist history.-

-- Saturday Review of Literature

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1948
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674282787
• ISBN 13: 9780674282780
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 709